Depression

What exactly does it mean to “process your feelings?”. It is certainly very common advice, and generally we tend to believe this to be true – identifying our emotions and expressing them in healthy ways is an important part of healthy human emotional development. But what exactly does this entail? How do we avoid simply…

Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1965) are entering into their “winter years” and in the process are facing a variety of stressors which they may not know how to manage. Mis-managed stress (distress) can contribute to a variety of mental and physical health challenges. When Boomers were children and young adults, the popular method for dealing…

An attractive 16 year old girl was describing how hard it was for her to go to school each day. She complained that while she had two friends at school, neither was in any of her classes. I suggested that this gave her an opportunity to reach out and make some casual connections with her…

Who knew? A study done at the University of California, Los Angeles using Functional Magnetic Brain Imaging (fMRI) to research “affect labelling” (putting feelings into words) had some surprising results. It was found that the process of writing one’s feelings on paper was enough to de-escalate amygdala activity, (the brain’s ‘alarm center’), which controls the…

After the death of a person or pet dear to your child, the holidays, especially the first ones, can become emotionally complicated. It is hard to know if you should celebrate and honour old traditions or ignore them and pretend like nothing is happening. For each family this journey will be unique and what you…

“Please bring him back if you can, he makes such a positive difference.” a client says to me at the end of the hour, much to my surprise, after the unexpected addition of my dog to a therapy session. This happened already ten years ago; I didn’t have time to return home after a visit…

David betrayed his life partner and he was not prepared for his partner’s emotional distress. He wanted to know when it would end. He asked “Why isn’t sorry good enough”? David needed to understand that his partner’s reactions were normal. Her healing was largely dependent on his ability to be empathic, remorseful, honest, apologetic, loving,…

September 10th 2019 is a day Rick will never forget.  He was sitting at an intersection on his motorcycle when a car hit him from behind, sending him flying.  The accident left him with a range of serious injuries, in addition to what Rick refers to as ‘the three’: PTSD, anxiety and depression.  Writing poetry…

The tragic death of George Floyd is yet another example of the nastiness of discrimination and prejudice that exists in the United States and across the world, including Canada.  The sense and tone I’ve gotten from social media is one of frustration, anger, sadness and confusion.  How can this still be happening? What can be…

Suicide is an emotional word. Feelings of confusion, fear, anger, and even disgust are common responses when the topic comes up in conversation. As a clinical counsellor I have felt all of these emotions when discussing suicide with clients. But over years of working with people at some of the lowest points of their lives,…

About three and a half years ago I wrote the article: ‘Up In Flames’ that can be found at Psychealth.com. It was written shortly after my apartment burned down and shares my experience navigating through that challenging life event. This article is the follow-up. It took over three years to rebuild my home. I recall the first…

Why are so many people struggling with anxiety? This was the question posed to me by a good friend over coffee this week, who was concerned about the levels of anxiety she was seeing in her workplace colleagues. With all that is happening in the world around us – natural disasters, immigration crises, worldwide political…